How effervescent 'Fab 4' left Pep and Citizens rubbing their noses with nine minutes of mayhem

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola reacts to 4-3 loss to Liverpool at Anfield [Photo: Courtesy]

Manchester City’s quest to be the latest 'Invincibles' of English football ended, thanks to nine minutes of mayhem on Sunday.

Hounded and harassed by Liverpool’s high press inside a raucous Anfield, City fell apart through a series of defensive mistakes and went from being level at 1-1 after 59 minutes to trailing 4-1 in the 68th minute.

City defender Kyle Walker rubbed his face in disbelief. Pep Guardiola, City’s manager, looked at the ground in shock. City recovered admirably to lose 4-3 but its five-month, 22-match unbeaten start to the league is over. Arsenal’s undefeated Premier League season in 2003-04 will not be emulated for at least another year.

Lost control

Preston was the other team to go through a top-flight season unbeaten, in 1888-89.

“We lost a little bit of our control,” Guardiola said of the atmosphere. “We were involved in the environment of Anfield for many, many reasons.”

This was seen as the toughest test in City’s final 16 games of the season — the team has not won at Anfield since 2003 — and so it proved. Liverpool was without the departed Philippe Coutinho and injured new signing Virgil van Dijk, but showed once again that there is no more dangerous team in matches between members of England’s 'Big 6'.

Liverpool’s effervescent front three — Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane, and Mohamed Salah — all scored, as did the man who might replace Coutinho in its so-called 'Fab 4' attack, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

League of its own

The win moved Liverpool level on points with Chelsea and second-place Manchester United, with all three teams 15 points behind City.

Arsenal’s class of 2003-04 remains in a league of its own but, 14 years on, the north London team is in disarray.

Arsene Wenger’s team lost 2-1 at Bournemouth, on the day the departure of Alexis Sanchez looked closer, with Arsenal dropping the forward for the trip to the south coast.